The clocks went back today. Is Europe following?
A bad week for Spain. No, not just their football loss yesterday to England. Their country is breaking up. Rumblings from other groups too: the Basques, Brittany, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland. Following Brexit, the Poles, Czechs, Hungarians are also muttering about leaving the EU. It's foolish to think all this is none of the EU's business. Its blundering inflexibility has already lost it the UK. No other country now dares hold an exit referendum. So, what exactly is the problem? Originally its '50's concept was for just a trade zone - hence the term Common Market - and to avoid all those past wars within its borders, but as usual the problem is....Germany! Its domination of the eurozone has blighted the Spanish and Greek economies and is mainly to blame for the present crisis. Hitler would be dancing a jig. The EU under Germany's rule cares not a jot for regional identity, nor for devolution. The EU concept should never have allowed one large country to dominate over all the others. It was meant to be an equal, round table, partnership just for trade. So, Catalonia is about Europe as much as about Spain. Europe: the warning alarms have sounded. Don't go back to sleep - do something about it before it's too late.
22nd October 2017
In this life you have to be flexible.
In the Apprentice on Wednesday, the contestants had to design a robot so that it could interract in today's world, and then sell it to interested parties. As expected, the egotistical youngsters were so focused on themselves and arguing with each other that they missed the main picture.
On Thursday Theresa May arrived at the EU summit in Brussels, following a press conference with Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker. She was armed with precise instructions from her Cabinet and focused on one aim: what was best for Britain. In turn Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker arrived with precise, voted-on, instructions from the council comprising all the other EU countries. In business, politics and in life flexibility is required. In critical negotiations always give the negotiator carte blanche to make individual decisions. At such times you cannot be robotic: you must have the power to duck and dive, bend and move at will, not hampered by pre-instructions. In Brussels neither side had this flexibility. What would Alan Sugar have predicted? Stalemate.
In the Apprentice on Wednesday, the contestants had to design a robot so that it could interract in today's world, and then sell it to interested parties. As expected, the egotistical youngsters were so focused on themselves and arguing with each other that they missed the main picture.
On Thursday Theresa May arrived at the EU summit in Brussels, following a press conference with Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker. She was armed with precise instructions from her Cabinet and focused on one aim: what was best for Britain. In turn Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker arrived with precise, voted-on, instructions from the council comprising all the other EU countries. In business, politics and in life flexibility is required. In critical negotiations always give the negotiator carte blanche to make individual decisions. At such times you cannot be robotic: you must have the power to duck and dive, bend and move at will, not hampered by pre-instructions. In Brussels neither side had this flexibility. What would Alan Sugar have predicted? Stalemate.
15th October 2017
It's good to love your country. Yet, yet...
In France Macron has agreed that French should no longer use the masculine domination of grammatical gender - a form of 'sexual tyranny' - to be replaced by a new gender-neutral version 'ecriture inclusive'. Normally, French plurals use the masculine form if both genders are involved, but now a plural like amis (friends of both genders) will become 'ami.e.s'. However, as expected, many are the French voices of dissent, including the prestigious, but traditionalist, Academie Francaise. In the US and S. Africa, many are the statues of past 'heroes' that are being pulled down due to changed, current views about race and slavery. And what of ME countries where women are still being subjugated due to traditional practices and where men are traditionally expected to behave in a particular way?
....So the question is: how can good citizens swear an oath of allegiance if that very country's traditions are no longer relevant today? Those who love their country become good citizens based on their love of the traditions of the past, but what to do when so many of those traditions are now no longer relevant? Do we, like Macron, tear up the rule book or, by so doing, do we destroy the very fabric of what makes a country great?
In France Macron has agreed that French should no longer use the masculine domination of grammatical gender - a form of 'sexual tyranny' - to be replaced by a new gender-neutral version 'ecriture inclusive'. Normally, French plurals use the masculine form if both genders are involved, but now a plural like amis (friends of both genders) will become 'ami.e.s'. However, as expected, many are the French voices of dissent, including the prestigious, but traditionalist, Academie Francaise. In the US and S. Africa, many are the statues of past 'heroes' that are being pulled down due to changed, current views about race and slavery. And what of ME countries where women are still being subjugated due to traditional practices and where men are traditionally expected to behave in a particular way?
....So the question is: how can good citizens swear an oath of allegiance if that very country's traditions are no longer relevant today? Those who love their country become good citizens based on their love of the traditions of the past, but what to do when so many of those traditions are now no longer relevant? Do we, like Macron, tear up the rule book or, by so doing, do we destroy the very fabric of what makes a country great?
8th October 2017
Did you see The Apprentice on Wednesday? What you see is what you get. This UK series is the last in a 3-year contract, Sugar's fee going to charity. When asked whether he thinks Trump, the original US host, is "up to the job", Sugar replies "Why not? I think he is up to it. Actually, if he didn't open his mouth so much and put his foot in it. He thinks he's still on The Apprentice. He chucks people out who don't agree with him." Well, yes. Trouble is, the show worked wonders for Trump by convincing many Americans that he was a master dealmaker. As Sugar says "If you owe the bank $2,000, they'll shut you down and make you sell your house. If you owe them $2bn they'll take you out to lunch!" Does Sugar see himself following in Trump's footsteps by putting himself forward as a future PM? No, it's a thankless task, he says. You just can't win. These days image has a lot to do with it. No good putting yourself on a stage, as May did this week, and have the letter F fall off behind you (F off?), plus images of standing in an empty market hall, contrasted with your opponent's newly-groomed image amidst cheering supporters. Nothing to do with politics then. Image is everything. Just watch the next episode of The Apprentice. As with politics, schadenfreude is all.
1st October 2017
Extremism is no good, especially in world politics. Whilst Corbyn hails the UK unions' strength, Macron launches the opposite in France. "Concrete and major measures," said Macron, overhauling France's complex labour laws to tackle mass unemployment and make France more competitive globally. Of course, the French unions don't like it. It will reduce their hefty influence and end the jobs-for-life culture that Macron says is a brake on economic growth. Just like the UK argument: Labour v Conservative. Remember the 70s, when Union leader Scargill was at his height? I certainly do. Sitting at home, 9 months pregnant, with no electricity or heat and outside no rubbish collections or even burials. I wonder how many in the UK know the salaries of top Union leaders like Len McCluskey? Whilst apparently sympathising with his members' pay freeze he awards himself a pay rise of 3.7% to over £140,000 p.a. I always mistrust their motives: are they really trying to help workers, or merely wanting to sustain their own personal power? Union leaders should never gain so much strength that they are effectively running the government. I hate extremism of any kind: far right (Hitler) or far left (Communism). What the UK needs is a Macron-type centrist government.
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